Here are 14 Exotic Animals That You Can Own in Tyler & Longview
Texas has an estimated 7.2 million dogs, more than any other state, this according to the American Veterinary Association. Safe to say, dogs are a Texan's best friend. But perhaps you’re interested in branching out a bit and adding a less common exotic pet to your home.
While there are few you might actually want living in your home, here are 16 exotic pets that you can legally own in Tyler, Longview, and the rest of Texas.
My wife's former front-runner for exotic pet: a galago. Also known as a bush baby. Bush babies average just 7 inches in length and weigh about 2-3 lbs. They eat insects and fruit, and in captivity they can live up to 16 years. They are primates, but as you probably suspected that are much closer to a lemur than a monkey.
Not unlike many human babies, bush babies have big round eyes, and are nocturnal by nature, but the similarities don’t end there, they also often smell like their own urine. That last fact is what took them out of the running for my family.
If you're worried about having to chase your dog up and down the road, or losing track of a teeny-tiny bush baby, then a super-slow sloth may be perfect for you.
While their natural habitat is found in South and Central America, no reason why you couldn't build your new sloth a suitable habitat right here in East Texas, and they're not much bigger than a small dog. Sloths range in size from 8 to 17 lbs., depending on the particular species. But heads-up, if you choose a sloth as your forever pet, it's actually gonna be close to forever. They usually live for about 20 years in the wild, and they are recorded to have lived for up to 30 years in captivity.
In Texas the list of exotic animals approved for you, according to Texas Capital, is actually quite exotic and long: kangaroos, orangutans (for example King Louie in "Jungle Book"), even one of the biggest Big Cats, Tigers, with a few stipulations are allowed to be privately owned.
But word to the wise, steer clear of cheetahs, chimps, jaguars, lions, and gorillas, all of these animals are prohibited in Texas... And pretty dangerous too.